Bloomfield Tech Teacher Earns County Honors

Bloomfield Tech teacher Indira Bailey has been named the 2012-13 Essex County Teacher of the Year by the New Jersey Department of Education.

The commercial illustration teacher, who was honored last month by the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, also earned county Vocational School District Teacher of the Year honors.

Bailey has taught students how use creativity to express their ideas  at Bloomfield Tech for 12 years and started the district's first National Art Honor Society.

The Pratt Institute and Kean University grad has also racked up accolades – she's received Fulbright-Hayes Fellowships to study in South Africa and Morocco, a Fulbright Memorial Scholarship to study in Japan and was the first co-recipient of the inaugural “South African Initiative Vision Award” from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

"I enjoy what I do, I believe in what I do and if not for my students, I would not be standing here today," said Bailey in a news release.